romanticization
Making things dreamy
Romanticization is the act of making something seem more appealing, exciting, or noble than it actually is.
To romanticize poverty is to gloss over its hardships; to romanticize war is to emphasize glory while ignoring horror.
The word often carries critical weight, suggesting distortion or naivety: The film's romanticization of the Old West ignores the violence and displacement that defined it.
Regarding as perfect
- mythologizingMaking legendary or sacred
- embellishmentDecorative addition or exaggeration
- aggrandizementIncrease in power/status
- venerationProfound admiring respect
idolization · hero-worship · exaltation · lionization · sanctification · whitewashing · canonization · deification
Seeking another's romantic favor
- infatuationShort-lived intense attraction
- amourRomantic liaison, often illicit
- wooingRomantic pursuit of another
- serenadeOutdoor romantic performance
tryst · sweetheart · devotion · ardor · passion · flirtation · adoration · paramour
Habitual mental retreat
- daydreamConscious fantasy while awake
- fairy-taleMagical children's story
- mythTraditional explanatory tale
- legendUnverified traditional tale
enchantment · whimsy · dreaminess · quixotic · fable · chivalry · adventure · magic
Excessive tender emotion
- reminiscenceRecalling past experiences
- yesteryearTime not long past
- halcyonPeacefully prosperous era
- bygoneOf earlier times
wistfulness · sepia · vintage · longing · retrospect · homesickness · memories · heritage
Rhetorical extreme exaggeration
- overstatementClaim beyond the facts
- embellishmentDecorative addition or exaggeration
- dramatizationConverting events to performance
- amplificationIncrease in intensity
overemphasis · distortion · overvaluation · inflation · enhancement · varnishing · sugarcoating · gilding
idealization
Regarding as perfect
- mythologizingMaking legendary or sacred
- embellishmentDecorative addition or exaggeration
- aggrandizementIncrease in power/status
veneration · idolization · hero-worship · exaltation · lionization · sanctification · whitewashing · canonization · deification · apotheosis
courtship
Seeking another's romantic favor
- infatuationShort-lived intense attraction
- amourRomantic liaison, often illicit
- wooingRomantic pursuit of another
serenade · tryst · sweetheart · devotion · ardor · passion · flirtation · adoration · paramour · valentine
escapism
Habitual mental retreat
- daydreamConscious fantasy while awake
- fairy-taleMagical children's story
- mythTraditional explanatory tale
legend · enchantment · whimsy · dreaminess · quixotic · fable · chivalry · adventure · magic · wonderland
sentimentality
Excessive tender emotion
- reminiscenceRecalling past experiences
- yesteryearTime not long past
- halcyonPeacefully prosperous era
bygone · wistfulness · sepia · vintage · longing · retrospect · homesickness · memories · heritage · melancholy
hyperbole
Rhetorical extreme exaggeration
- overstatementClaim beyond the facts
- embellishmentDecorative addition or exaggeration
- dramatizationConverting events to performance
amplification · overemphasis · distortion · overvaluation · inflation · enhancement · varnishing · sugarcoating · gilding · overstating
- creative libertiesartistic license, poetic license, liberties, creative liberties, fictionalization
- glorificationglorifying, glorification, exalting, exaltation, idolizing
- idealizationperfection, ideal, glorification, wishful thinking, illusion
- idealizingglorification, idolization, hero-worship, pedestalization, deification
- obsessionsobsession, fixation, monomania, preoccupation, mania
- mythmakingfounding myths, founding myth, origin stories, origin story, mythos
romanticizationdisillusionment
Bitter loss of faith
demystification · realism · unvarnished truth · disenchantment · demythologization
romanticizationdemonization
Casting as evil
vilification · disparagement · cynicism · harsh criticism · condemnation
romanticizationrationalization
Inventing acceptable motives afterward
empiricism · analytical thinking · logical analysis · skepticism · fact-checking
romantic, romance, Romanticism, unromantic, Roman, romanticize, romanticized, romanticizes, romanticizing